Date: Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 Time: 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (EST)

A growing number of historians now look at the Civil Rights Movement not just as something that happened in the 1960s, but as a historical process that spanned decades beginning in the World War II years or even earlier. While the African American freedom struggle is most remembered for its stirring sit-ins and other dramatic clashes to dismantle segregation in public accommodations and to win the vote, it has long had a strong economic and political focus, too. Among the topics the workshop will tackle are how and when the movement began; what demands it placed before the nation; the organizations that came into being and their strategies; how the movement changed between the 1930s and 1970s; and how the movement changed America.

LEADER:

Kenneth R. Janken Professor, African and Afro-American Studies University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill National Humanities Center Fellow

• Assigned Readings
  1. Kenneth R. Janken, "The Civil Rights Movement" in "Freedom's Story" from the National Humanities Center
  2. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Does the Negro Need Separate Schools" (PDF)
  3. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Statement of Purpose
     
     • Note
     • Text (PDF)
  4. Ella Baker, "Bigger Than a Hamburger"
  5. "An Appeal for Human Rights"
  6. Malcolm X, "The Ballet or the Bullet"
     
     • Note
     • Text
  7. James Farmer, "Integration or Desegregation"
  8. Seminar Leader Background Notes (Word Doc)
• Seminar Presentation (PowerPoint, 1.4MB)
• Seminar Evaluation (Available on day of seminar.)
• Forum